In Hartford, Marchers Seek Respect For Science

Patrick Raycraft / Hartford Courant

At the March For Science on Earth Day in Hartford, Steve Graseck and his wife Laura Sorensen of Southington participate in a large rally at Mortensen Riverfront Plaza Saturday afternoon. The Hartford rally was part of a nationwide movement organized to protest President Trump as well as to support scientfic research.

At the March For Science on Earth Day in Hartford, Steve Graseck and his wife Laura Sorensen of Southington participate in a large rally at Mortensen Riverfront Plaza Saturday afternoon. The Hartford rally was part of a nationwide movement organized to protest President Trump as well as to support scientfic research.

HARTFORD — As the rain fell, marker ink spread across freshly-made posters, sometimes distorting drawings and words. But the more than 1,200 people who showed up with umbrellas and raincoats still held their signs high at a March for Science rally at the Mortensen Riverfront Plaza on Saturday.

People chanted, "Science not silence," a phrase that was written on dozens of posters.

The march, one of the gatherings that took place in more than 435 cities around the U.S. and the world, was scheduled for Earth Day. It was intended to draw attention to plans by President Donald Trump's administration to cut the budgets of environmental agencies and also put a focus on what scientists and others say is a growing lack of respect for science.

"I've been in government a long time, and I've been on this earth a long time ,and who would've ever thought we'd have to rally for science?" Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman asked, bringing laughs out of the crowd.

Wyman was among the many speakers who took the the microphone in Hartford. Sen. Richard Blumenthal did so as well.

"Mr. President there are more than 1,200 people here who are saying no to your alternative facts," Blumenthal said, the crowd cheering in front of him. "The earth is not flat, the sun does not revolve around the earth and, Mr. Trump, the world does not revolve around you."

Trump issued an Earth Day statement hours after the marches kicked off, saying that "rigorous science depends not on ideology, but on a spirit of honest inquiry and robust debate."

Dr. Brad Brooks, a family medicine physician at Manchester Memorial Hospital, wore a white lab coat and stethoscope around his neck and held a sign that read, "Science is non-partisan."

"I think it's important [that people] know that there are scientists among them that are politically active and engaged, and I think taking a role of leadership in the field encourages other people to do it," Brooks said.

Blumenthal said Trump has proposed cutting the budgets of the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and cutting $6 billion from the National Institutes of Health, but said, "I can tell you that budget is dead on arrival in the United States Senate," Blumenthal said.

In New Haven, about 500 people gathered at East Rock Park for a March for Science. Rob Klee, commissioner of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said there that the proposed cuts on federal funding is an assault by an administration that sees no value in science.

Mitch Wagener, a biology professor at Western Connecticut State University who was in New haven, criticized a push to defund the battle against climate change.

"We only have 10 more years to reverse the warming before we hit a critical stage, after which reversal will be very hard," he said.

The March for Science saw support from all demographics "because it is a non-partisan cause that people can rally behind," said Kimberly Adams, spokeswoman for the Eastern Connecticut Resistance Movement, before heading to the Hartford rally.

Adams said that for the past 50 years or so, the country's government and society has valued science, and so "when science itself starts becoming politicized it becomes a problem that forces people to speak."

Many groups, like the Eastern Connecticut Resistance movement, began as "huddles" after the Women's March on Washington. Huddles were among the "subsequent actions" people could participate in to voice concerns in government, Adams said.

The Women's March was one of the first rallies 13-year-old Ani Zakarian participated in, but the March for Science in Hartford has a different significance for the aspiring scientist.

"Young people need to be included because they're the people that will be affected," Zakarian said, "but they can also be the ones that can change it or make it worse."

"Mr. Trump, you may call climate change a hoax, you can remove it as a term from the White House website but you can not stop the eroding shorelines, the rising tides or the melting of the Arctic," Blumenthal said. "And you can not stop us. We will prevail and science will prevail because truth trumps denial."

Next Saturday, the People's Climate March is expected to draw people to Washington, D.C.